another eye opens

homemade Vietnamese dinner on upper Fifth Avenue with Sarah (from New Jersey), Nam Tran (from Vietnam), Leng (from Singapore), Hung (brother of Nam), and Hyunkyung (from Korea)

the homoerotic retail landscape of Fifth Avenue in midtown

New Year's day at Andy's with classmates from Cornell and their plus-ones

random profile pic on Scruff

Dinner at Cha-Ya in the Mission with Keith Hennessy, Andrew Ramer, and a guy wearing a Big Bird winter hat

Andy and his high school girlfriend Holly, now a lesbian mom named Jamey, at Borderlands Bookstore

Andy and Jamey with her wife Carol on Balmy Alley

Andy and I flew out to California to attend the memorial service for his Uncle Bill, who died of a heart attack in December at age 70.

He lived in a house on a hill back in the woods near Pescadero, drove a school bus, had lots of girlfriends but never married, attended healing circles and loved the poetry of Rumi. He sounds like a character I really wish I'd gotten to meet.

This was an occasion for me to meet Andy's extended family, including his father Dave (bottom row, far right). Clockwise from there: Dave's wife Beth (Andy's stepmom), Andy's cousin Erika and her kids Karolina and Peter, Beth's son John, Andy, Erika's mom Laurene, Andy's sister Becky, Erika's dad George, her husband Martin, and his mom Jana.

We all stayed in a big house half a block from the beach in Half Moon Bay. What a luxury to walk on the beach in January!

It was Andy's first glimpse of Karolina, who's nine weeks old.

Uncle Bill was known for his far-out gifts, such as the tie Andy wore to his memorial service in Pescadero.

The next day we scattered Bill's ashes among the redwoods on his property.